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Jeanne: what time it was and where.
    “Would you rather wait outside, Chris, or would you rather wait on the phone with me?”
    “Wait until now,” Chris said. He made no sense. He was having trouble registering what the woman was asking.
    “Why don’t you stay on the phone with me.”
    “Are they on their way?” wondered Chris.
    “Yes.”
    “Oh. My. God.”
    Putting the telephone down for a moment, Chris went back to Jeanne, knelt beside her, placed his right hand behind her back and picked her neck and head up off the ground.
    She’s so cold , he thought.
    “I love you, honey…,” Chris whispered in Jeanne’s ear. It was at that moment, he remembered later, as he told Jeanne, “I love you,” that he heard sirens…but what he didn’t see then, and wouldn’t find out until much later, was that Jeanne’s shoulder and head, neck, chest and back of her head were riddled with stab wounds. On her hands, Jeanne had defensive wounds. Several. She had fought tirelessly with her assailant.
    “Wait until you hear the sirens, OK, Chris?” the operator said as Chris picked up the telephone again. “Was she around any tables or counters that she could have struck her head on?”
    “Well, the kitchen…”
    “OK, as soon as the police and ambulance arrive, they will—”
    “I can’t see, but I hear them outside. Should I go?”
    “Yes.”
    While kneeling there beside Jeanne, just looking at her one last time, Chris noticed something else—an image he knew would be with him for the remainder of his life: bending down to kiss Jeanne on the cheek one final time, brushing her hair away from her face, Chris realized she was staring at him, her eyes open, glossy and “blank.”
    “That’s when I knew she was gone.”

C HAPTER 10
     
    Jeanne Dominico and Chris McGowan had never set a wedding date. Jeanne never wore an engagement ring. They decided they wanted to wait until Nicole and Drew were graduated from high school, Chris said, “and well-established in the direction of their lives.” To Jeanne and Chris, the kids came first. It was important to Jeanne: that the kids set goals for themselves, dream and focus on realizing their full potential. Forming a legal bond with Chris could wait. Drew and Nicole were what mattered most to Jeanne, and abiding by her wishes was one more way for Chris to show his love and support. He had waited decades for the love of his life. What was another four or five years for a wife?
    “We were in no hurry at all.”
    The night Chris proposed to Jeanne wasn’t the Bogie and Bacall moment either had perhaps anticipated. It was more of a casual gesture than anything else, and that’s the way Jeanne and Chris’s relationship progressed. Nothing was ever complicated. The way they saw it, they were two people who had found true love later rather than sooner. Nothing else mattered. They were in love.
    A few months into their relationship, Chris and Jeanne discussed marriage. “I’ll wait to ask, though, Jeannie,” Chris said one night, “until I have the ring.”
    Jeanne agreed.
    “We had discussed the size and shape of the ring that she wanted,” remembered Chris.
    “Wait until we can set a date,” insisted Jeanne, “before buying it.”
    Jeanne was not someone who drew attention to herself; she was much more concerned with the happiness and security of others than what her own life could provide. The strength she amassed from helping people, many said, gave Jeanne a tremendous amount of comfort. Still, as time passed, Jeanne accepted the simple gestures of love Chris made. At first, she didn’t know how to react to someone showing her so much affection. Getting flowers delivered to her at work, for example. Chris had sent roses during that week in August to celebrate their approaching anniversary. Jeanne had “tears in her eyes” when she walked over to Chris’s desk to thank him.
    “They’re beautiful, Chris. Thank you, honey.” Humility: it wasn’t something